Day: July 1, 2015

Is it the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s idea to direct the Auditor-General to audit the debt-laden 1MDB accounts, accompanied by a secret directive to the Auditor-General not to make the report public?

Such an arrangement defeats the very purpose and principles of an open, accountable and transparent governance which have “Nothing2Hide” as far the controversial 1MDB’s affairs are concerned as well as destroys the original rationale of asking the Auditor-General to vet 1MDB’s finances to demonstrate that the Prime Minister and his Government are prepared to withstand the most intense scrutiny.

Earlier Auditor General, Tan Sri Ambrin Buang has said that the interim report of the audit of the 1MDB would be ready in June.

This is 1st July and the interim report of the Auditor-General on the 1MDB is still being awaited.

The Parliamentary Public Accounts Committee Chairman Datuk Nur Jazlan Mohamad has said that the Auditor-General’s interim report on the 1MDB would not be made public, but only to be distributed to the PAC members.

This is unsatisfactory and unacceptable. Continue reading “Is it the Prime Minister’s idea to direct the Auditor-General to audit the 1MDB accounts accompanied by a secret directive to the AG not to make the interim report public?”

The AGE report last Tuesday (23 June) on the MARA Inc. property scams, particularly over the Dudley International House apartment block in Melbourne, which was acquired with A$22.5 million (RM65.4 million) MARA funds, but involving a bribe of A$4.75 million (RM13.8 million), as well as investigations into MARA Inc’s other Australian properties, has opened up a can of worms of abuses of power, criminal breach of trust and corruption in MARA.

I had earlier asked whether Datuk Seri Annuar Musa would resign as MARA Chairman to take responsibility for MARA’s international corruption scandal and to pioneer a culture of responsibility for government leaders and captains of statutory boards and corporations.

In his response on Saturday, Annuar said there was no need for him to quit over the allegations of corruption of MARA’s property purchases in Australia, as his term as MARA chairperson would expire in two weeks’ time.

True, Annuar’s tenure as MARA Chairman ends on July 18, but the events of the past eight days since The Age expose last Tuesday seem to point inexorably to one conclusion: that Annuar should be sacked as MARA Chairman as he has failed the mission entrusted to him to fulfil the MARA Vision to ensure that under his chairmanship, MARA is an “outstanding organization of trust, upholding the nation’s pride” and spearhead new breakthroughs for bumiputeras in the fields of entrepreneurship, education and investment.

The abuses, malpractices and criminal offences in the MARA property scams in Australia are gross violations of the MARA Vision to be “an outstanding organization of trust, upholding the nation’s pride” – as under Annuar‘s chairmanship, MARA has degenerated into a “disgraceful organisation in criminal breach of trust, representing the nation’s shame” not only in Malaysia but in the international arena!

Even worse, the MARA property corruption scandal has dragged into the international mud not only the reputation of MARA, but also the good name of Malaysia and the Federal Government, as well as the professionalism and integrity of the nation’s anti-corruption agency, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). Continue reading “Annuar Musa should be sacked as MARA Chairman as he had failed the MARA Vision for MARA to be “an outstanding organization of trust, upholding the nation’s pride” and spearhead new breakthroughs for Bumiputeras”

Hussein Hamid
30/06/2015

Scandal after scandal but still the ruling party and its leaders continue to hold control over us. What make Malaysians wake up to the rot that is now all around them?

Last week saw the Mara Dudley House corruption story break in Melbourne and the arrest of Xavier Justo Andre in Bangkok. As in all things Malaysian, however tenuous and fragile the link, all things lead back to the Prime Minister Najib Razak – and rightly so.

The troubles that beset Najib’s administration are self inflicted. They are not caused by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar Ibrahim, not by Lim Kit Siang or by Hadi Awang. Nor were the Chinese or the Christians responsible.

The state of the global economy can be labelled a contributing factor only because in good times corruption and bad governance by inept politicians can be ignored or simply papered over as the rakyat’s attention can be distracted by the feel good spending by the government on projects that seemingly benefit the public.

But at a time when money is a premium and the lack of it is already being felt by those most in need of it – the millions being lost through capers such as the Mara Dudley House purchase and the 1MDB stretches the ability of the rakyat to tolerate anymore what Barisan Nasional is doing in the name of government.

The question is without doubt more pressing when the ailing opposition Pakatan Rakyat is in no position to offer a credible alternative. Continue reading “What WILL break the camel’s back?”